Xmlsoft: >> Libxml2 >> 1.8.1 Security Vulnerabilities
libxml2 is vulnerable to multiple stack-based buffer overflows in the xmlcatalog utility when running in --shell mode. The usershell() function processes user input using fixed-size stack buffers without proper bounds checking.
By supplying an overly long input line, an attacker can overflow internal buffers (command, arg, and argv) during input parsing. This results in memory corruption within the stack frame.
Successful exploitation may cause a crash or potentially allow arbitrary code execution in the context of the xmlcatalog process.
This issue has been fixed in the commit c2e233fc.
NOTE:
The maintainers of this project did not agree that this issue is a vulnerability and considered it a bug.
CVSS Score
1.8
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2026-06-29
A flaw was identified in the RelaxNG parser of libxml2 related to how external schema inclusions are handled. The parser does not enforce a limit on inclusion depth when resolving nested <include> directives. Specially crafted or overly complex schemas can cause excessive recursion during parsing. This may lead to stack exhaustion and application crashes, creating a denial-of-service risk.
CVSS Score
3.7
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-01-15
A flaw was found in libxml2, an XML parsing library. This uncontrolled recursion vulnerability occurs in the xmlCatalogXMLResolveURI function when an XML catalog contains a delegate URI entry that references itself. A remote attacker could exploit this configuration-dependent issue by providing a specially crafted XML catalog, leading to infinite recursion and call stack exhaustion. This ultimately results in a segmentation fault, causing a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing affected applications.
CVSS Score
5.9
EPSS Score
0.008
Published
2026-01-15
A flaw was found in the libxml2 library. This uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability occurs when processing XML catalogs that contain repeated <nextCatalog> elements pointing to the same downstream catalog. A remote attacker can exploit this by supplying crafted catalogs, causing the parser to redundantly traverse catalog chains. This leads to excessive CPU consumption and degrades application availability, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.
CVSS Score
2.9
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-01-15
Uncontrolled recursion in XPath evaluation in libxml2 up to and including version 2.9.14 allows a local attacker to cause a stack overflow via crafted expressions. XPath processing functions `xmlXPathRunEval`, `xmlXPathCtxtCompile`, and `xmlXPathEvalExpr` were resetting recursion depth to zero before making potentially recursive calls. When such functions were called recursively this could allow for uncontrolled recursion and lead to a stack overflow. These functions now preserve recursion depth across recursive calls, allowing recursion depth to be controlled.
CVSS Score
6.2
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2025-09-10
A vulnerability was found in libxml2 up to 2.14.5. It has been declared as problematic. This vulnerability affects the function xmlParseSGMLCatalog of the component xmlcatalog. The manipulation leads to uncontrolled recursion. Attacking locally is a requirement. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The real existence of this vulnerability is still doubted at the moment. The code maintainer explains, that "[t]he issue can only be triggered with untrusted SGML catalogs and it makes absolutely no sense to use untrusted catalogs. I also doubt that anyone is still using SGML catalogs at all."
CVSS Score
1.9
EPSS Score
0.002
Published
2025-08-08
A flaw was found in libxml2's xmlBuildQName function, where integer overflows in buffer size calculations can lead to a stack-based buffer overflow. This issue can result in memory corruption or a denial of service when processing crafted input.
CVSS Score
7.5
EPSS Score
0.011
Published
2025-06-12
In libxml2 before 2.13.8 and 2.14.x before 2.14.2, xmlSchemaIDCFillNodeTables in xmlschemas.c has a heap-based buffer under-read. To exploit this, a crafted XML document must be validated against an XML schema with certain identity constraints, or a crafted XML schema must be used.
CVSS Score
2.9
EPSS Score
0.006
Published
2025-04-17
In libxml2 before 2.13.8 and 2.14.x before 2.14.2, out-of-bounds memory access can occur in the Python API (Python bindings) because of an incorrect return value. This occurs in xmlPythonFileRead and xmlPythonFileReadRaw because of a difference between bytes and characters.
CVSS Score
5.6
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2025-04-08
libxml2 before 2.12.10 and 2.13.x before 2.13.6 has a stack-based buffer overflow in xmlSnprintfElements in valid.c. To exploit this, DTD validation must occur for an untrusted document or untrusted DTD. NOTE: this is similar to CVE-2017-9047.
CVSS Score
7.8
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2025-02-18
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